The Most Powerful Non-Verbal Language: Eye Contact
The Most Powerful Non-verbal Language－Eye Contact
Language is more than just words. According to Albert Mehrabian’s 7%- 38%- 55% communication rule, 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors, 38% of communication is attributable to voice, and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used. The non-verbal behaviors include the body language, the eye contact, the facial expressions, and so on. Among all these kinds of communication signals, eye contact holds a quite important position. Allan Pease (1981) used to say that “it is only when you see ‘eye to eye’ with another person that a real basis for communication can be established” in his book Body Language. Also, in an article published on Communication Education, Steven A. Beebe (1974) examined the function of eye contact, and proved that it can increase the speaker 's credibility in terms of qualification and honesty factors.
However, in another article written by a Chinese, the author Admin (2011) advised people to avoid direct eye contact in interpersonal communication. From such distinction, it can be seen that although eye contact is one of the tools of cross-culture communication, it still has different meanings in different cultures. So in recent years, some studies have focused on such differences. Scholars like Lahle Wolfe (2010) and Jim Johannasen (2010) used to introduced the different customs and social rules of eye contact in several countries. Nonetheless, all these studies just focus on what eye contact means and how to make proper eye contact in different cultures. None of them mentioned such customs’ forming and introduced some basic and worldwide accepted rules of eye contact
So this paper aims at giving a relatively complete introduction of eye contact, and to achieve this goal, the paper is organized into three main sections. In the first section, I explain the importance of eye contact. In the second section, I show several universal guidelines. While in
Language is more than just words. According to Albert Mehrabian’s 7%- 38%- 55% communication rule, 55% of communication is attributable to non-verbal behaviors, 38% of communication is attributable to voice, and only 7% of communication is attributable to the words used. The non-verbal behaviors include the body language, the eye contact, the facial expressions, and so on. Among all these kinds of communication signals, eye contact holds a quite important position. Allan Pease (1981) used to say that “it is only when you see ‘eye to eye’ with another person that a real basis for communication can be established” in his book Body Language. Also, in an article published on Communication Education, Steven A. Beebe (1974) examined the function of eye contact, and proved that it can increase the speaker 's credibility in terms of qualification and honesty factors.
However, in another article written by a Chinese, the author Admin (2011) advised people to avoid direct eye contact in interpersonal communication. From such distinction, it can be seen that although eye contact is one of the tools of cross-culture communication, it still has different meanings in different cultures. So in recent years, some studies have focused on such differences. Scholars like Lahle Wolfe (2010) and Jim Johannasen (2010) used to introduced the different customs and social rules of eye contact in several countries. Nonetheless, all these studies just focus on what eye contact means and how to make proper eye contact in different cultures. None of them mentioned such customs’ forming and introduced some basic and worldwide accepted rules of eye contact
So this paper aims at giving a relatively complete introduction of eye contact, and to achieve this goal, the paper is organized into three main sections. In the first section, I explain the importance of eye contact. In the second section, I show several universal guidelines. While in
Cited: Pease, Allan. Body Language. Camel Publishing Company, 1981. Print Beebe, Steven A. Eye contact: A nonverbal determinant of speaker credibility. Routledge, 1974. Print. Wolfe, Lahle. Eye Contact Social Rules. Web. 2010 Johannasen, Jim. Eye Contact in Different Cultures. Web. 2010 Bailey, Debbie. Look ‘Em in the Eyes: The Real Power of Eye Contact. Web. 2006